The invention relates to a sealing system for oscillating piston engines comprising at least two oscillating pistons which revolve together in a spherical housing about an axis of revolution provided in the housing centre and which each have opposite piston arms which, when revolving, perform reciprocating oscillating movements in opposite directions about an oscillation axis perpendicular to the axis of revolution, wherein guide members are provided on at least two pistons, said guide members engaging in at least one guide groove formed in the housing for controlling the oscillating movements.
Such oscillating piston engines are internal combustion engines in which the work cycles of intake, compression, expansion and exhaust according to the Otto or diesel four-stroke method with external or self-ignition are effected by oscillating movements of the piston between two end positions.
Oscillating piston engines known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,075,506, WO 03067033, DE 10361566 and WO 2005/098202 have two working chambers between the opposing piston inner sides and two prechambers or auxiliary chambers between the likewise opposing piston rear sides, which alternately open and close in opposite directions due to oscillating movements. In WO 2005/098202, these four chambers in total are enclosed externally by the spherical housing and are delimited on the front sides by the connecting structure of the pistons between the piston arms in the manner of side walls. In the inner region the revolving shaft forms a substantially cylindrical bottom surface aligned coaxially to the oscillation axis so that cavities closed on all sides are formed from the four chambers, which cavities only communicate with one another or towards the outside temporally through openings in the spherical housing for flooding or emptying with fluid, i.e. air, combustion mixture or exhaust gas.
In the prechambers and working chambers negative pressure develops during the flooding and excess pressure develops during the compression and expansion which reaches up to 100 bar in the working chambers, which without sealing elements would result in power-consuming pressure losses during precompression, compression and expansion and to incursions of lubricating fluid into the chambers. In the aforementioned patent documents, no information is given on the sealing system